admiration | neteyam & lo'ak x oc

? eight

neteyam stood by, hands clapping. he cheered her on as he felt a wave of pride flush through him. he taught her to do that, and she was succeeding. it made him feel good, really good.

"nice work, tal! i knew you could do it." he told her as she dismounted pa'li much more gracefully than her previous attempts.

she felt like her body was aching and new bruises forming already from her first lesson. but she smiled back at his compliment, happy that she made him proud.

"it was all down to having a great teacher, i suppose." she gently nudged him, deflecting the compliment back to the boy.

he grinned, "yeah, i suppose that helped too."

talia breathed a fake breath of shock, "hey! you were supposed to say- 'no talia, you did that all by yourself, you're so awesome!'"

they both started laughing. neteyam spoke up again, "fine, fine. you technically did do it yourself, so i'll give you that." he nudged her shoulder back.

"so what's next?"

"no, hold it like this." neteyam brought talia's elbow up higher as he corrected her form. she was currently learning to hold a bow, which she wasn't too bad.

talia listened to his advice, bringing her elbow up slightly. she felt her body tense under his watchful gaze, feeling very vulnerable.

neteyam pressed his hands onto the girls toned stomach, "relax here, you are much too tense."

she felt herself stiffen even more under his touch, especially somewhere more intimate.

neteyam felt her rigid movement and sharp breathing and shook his head. he decided to keep his hands on her stomach until she fixed the problem, oblivious to the effect he had on her in the moment.

"talia, you are still tense. breathe in, breathe out. like this," neteyam showed her and watched her copy his breathing, "good. now elbow up again- yes just like that."

after fixing talia's stance for what felt like an eternity, he finally let her fire her first arrow. it was so far off the target she didn't even know where it went. "oops," she giggled.

neteyam just shook his head, "try again. like riding, it takes time. just keep your arms nice and tight."

talia felt like the air was getting hotter. was he saying these things on purpose? she felt her blood pressure rise at the thought of neteyam muttering those words under different circumstances. unfortunately as she thought of that, her face blushed immensely. she was having a hard time focusing, clearly.

"what is wrong?" neteyam could tell the girl started getting nervous, especially when he tried to help her. he wondered if he was coming on to strong or maybe she just thought he was a bad teacher.

his question brought talia out of her daze, "what? oh, nothing! just- thinking."

"less thinking and more breathing." he motioned for her to try again, so she did.

it took just about the same time for talia to get a somewhat decent posture for holding a bow as it did to ride pa'li. soon, over half the day was gone and neteyam knew she would need to eat and rest now. she could pick up training again tomorrow.

"let's go, we're done for the day." neteyam told talia as she collected the arrows from the target.

"finally. can we eat? i'm so hungry." she perked up at the idea of eating. she practically skipped over to neteyam, walking side by side with him and their shoulders touching from the close proximity.